“What other homicides?”

“Here … wait.” Rina flipped through the pages of her translated text. “It’s hard to tell, Peter, because they, like you guys here, use abbreviations. Mrs. Manheim thought that this page”—Rina sifted through the faxed copies of the original documents—“here, this over here. They brought in Berg for a consult on the MAK of two women—Anna Gross and Marlena Durer.” Rina read to herself. “Okay … this word—‘tötungsdelikt’—that’s premeditated homicide. ‘Totschlag’ could be like regular homicide.”

“Regular homicide?”

Rina was exasperated as she groped for words. “You know … like defensible homicide.”

“Self-defense?”

“Yeah, yeah. It could mean killing in self-defense.” She hit her head. “‘Tötungsdelikt’ implies lying in wait.”

“Okay. So these two women, Durer and Gross, were premeditated murder victims.”

“Yes, we think so.”

“What does ‘MAK’ mean?”

“We’re not sure. Mrs. Manheim thinks it might be an abbreviation for ‘mordakten,’ which would be a homicide file. ‘Mord’ is murder. ‘Akte’ is any file. See? They have it in front of my grandmother’s name—MAK Regina Gottlieb.”

Decker regarded his wife’s blue eyes. “Regina? So you’re named after her?”

Rina nodded.

“Ah.”

“I think that Kalmer and Messersmit wanted to know if my grandmother’s murder was related to the murders of Durer and Gross.”

“What? Like a serial killing?”

Rina shrugged. “Beats me. That’s your domain.”

Decker scanned through Rina’s translated notes as he sipped tea. “You translated the autopsy report.”

“Yes, we did. It was gruesome.”

Again he regarded his wife. “Your grandfather allowed the body to be autopsied.”

“He didn’t have a choice because her death was unnatural.”

Reading over the specifics: a white Jewess, well developed, well nourished, 155 centimeters in height, with a weight of 45 kilograms. “They specified her religion?”

“There’s a shock.” She rolled her eyes. “I’m surprised they didn’t write her up as ‘Jewess dog.’”

“But 1928 was pre-Hitler.”

“In Germany, yes. He didn’t come into official power until 1933. But Munich was a different story. In the late ’20s, Hitler was a very strong force. Munich was where his family had originally settled from Austria. That’s where he led the famous Beer Hall Putsch in the early ’20s.”

“Sorry. I slept through world history. What’s a ‘putsch’?”

“A ‘putsch’ is like a … It’s like a coup … an insurrection. The Nazis tried to take over Munich. It was unsuccessful. They threw Hitler into jail. That’s where he wrote Mein Kampf. Any of this sound familiar?”

“I knew Hitler was from Austria. I also know he was a failed artist. You might have to give me a crash course in prewar Germany.”

“Doesn’t matter.”

“No, Rina, it might be important. Maybe the murder was an act of anti-Semitism.” Decker skimmed through the sheets for several minutes.

Rina let him read, then said, “Anything in there to verify your theory?”

“Nothing so far. I have to study this in detail.” He backtracked several pages. “Yeah, definitely this guy Berg was working on several female homicide cases. And they considered your grandmother to be a possibility. Except in these two cases—Durer and Gross—they were strangled … and your grandmother was bludgeoned on the back of the head.” He closed the file and connected with Rina’s eyes. “Do you really want to find out about this?”